The attack was extremely fast.
A man stabbed several people at Gare du Nord in Paris early Wednesday morning at a busy time, injuring six.
He was quickly subdued by the police, who opened fire.
What happened ?
At around 6:45 a.m. on Wednesday morning, a man injured several people with a punch-type weapon.
He would have started by throwing himself on a man who was on the forecourt of the station, before entering the building to attack five other people.
Alerted by cries, two police officers from the railway network brigade intervened in turn while the man was attacking a police officer from the PAF, the border police.
The police subdued him using their weapon.
The attacker, shot in the chest, was transferred to the hospital with a vital prognosis.
How are the victims?
The first victim is the man attacked on the forecourt of the station.
Hit by fifteen blows, he was seriously injured.
This person is "hospitalized, but is not in absolute emergency", specified Gérald Darmanin who went on the spot.
My reaction this morning at Gare du Nord ⤵️ https://t.co/opwfcpQeob pic.twitter.com/g8lj7Xrqm9
– Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) January 11, 2023
The five other people who were targeted by the aggressor, a woman and four men, including the border police officer, are more lightly affected.
"Without extremely rapid intervention, there would surely be victims," said the Minister of the Interior, who congratulated the police for their "effective and courageous reaction".
“At 6:42 am the first acts are characterized.
At 6:43 a.m. the police use their administrative weapon after a violent journey,” reports Gérald Darmanin.
Who is the aggressor?
According to the first elements of the investigation, it would be a young man born in 1991. For the moment, we do not know anything about his motivations.
“To my knowledge, he said nothing”, specifies Gérald Darmanin, specifying that the suspect “would have made the weapon himself, which is not a knife”.
Wounded in the chest by a police gunshot, he was evacuated to hospital in a worrying state, with a vital prognosis.
"Assassination attempt"
As it stands, the anti-terrorist prosecutor's office is not seized and it is the criminal brigade which is in charge of the investigation, opened for "attempted assassinations".
The IGPN, the police force, was also seized because of the use of a firearm by the police.
In addition to the Minister of the Interior, the prefect of police of Paris Laurent Nuñez, as well as the mayor of the capital Anne Hidalgo, the EELV deputy for the constituency Julien Bayou and the Minister of Transport Clément Beaune went to the site.
After the attack, a security perimeter was deployed.
Tapes bearing the words "Do not cross" from the national police were installed between tracks 11 to 18. An announcement was broadcast warning travelers of delays for their train.
“The station continues to be operated normally, no interruption of traffic”, commented to AFP a spokesperson for the SNCF.
Gare du Nord is the leading station in Europe and the third in the world in terms of traffic since it welcomes 700,000 people per day and more than 220 million visitors per year.
